Lumley General Insurance New Zealand Deploys Guidewire for Underwriting, Policy Administration and Billing Management

Lumley General Insurance (N.Z.) Limited (Lumley), its parent company Wesfarmers Insurance, and Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), a provider of core system software to general (Property/Casualty) insurers, today announced that Lumley has successfully deployed Guidewire PolicyCenter® as its new underwriting and policy administration solution and Guidewire BillingCenter® as its new billing system.

Lumley has simultaneously deployed PolicyCenter and BillingCenter for both commercial and personal products in a phased implementation approach. BillingCenter will provide agency and direct bill functionality across the entire Lumley organization in NZ and will handle commissions and calculations as well.

Following a successful Guidewire ClaimCenter® implementation, Lumley turned its focus to replacing its underwriting, policy administration, and billing systems with a modern technology platform that could adapt to meet its changing business demands. Additional key business drivers for this change were to improve data quality and access, create consistent processes and best practices, and manage risks during the underwriting process. Lumley was drawn to the out-of-the box functionality of PolicyCenter and BillingCenter and the systems’ flexibility to address customer complexities.

“We were able to leverage the familiarity with Guidewire technology we obtained during our ClaimCenter implementation throughout the deployment of PolicyCenter and BillingCenter,” said Mike Gardner, Head of IT, Lumley. “We are already seeing significant strategic and operational benefits from having a shared technology platform which allows us to utilize our IT skills across all three core systems.”

“Guidewire’s commitment to ensuring a smooth implementation was key to the success of our project. They supported our resourcing requests, offered the right advice regarding project challenges, and provided in-depth industry knowledge anytime we needed it. Guidewire has been and will continue to be the ideal partner for Lumley,” continued Gardner.

PolicyCenter and BillingCenter are enabling Lumley to now:

• Increase business agility via more timely and reliable rating management;

• Meet customer demands for more flexible policy changes;

• Provide its staff with an intuitive and integrated technology platform to allow them to do their job quickly and efficiently;

• Improve data analytics and provide real-time reporting capabilities; and

• Enhance operational efficiency through proactive workload management and the automation of former manual tasks, such as processing renewals without the need for review.

“We congratulate Lumley on its successful implementation of Guidewire PolicyCenter and BillingCenter,” said Ian Tavener, Vice President, Asia Pacific Operations, Guidewire Software. “We are proud to play a role in helping Lumley transform its underwriting, policy administration and billing management operations and look forward to the continued benefits Lumley will experience over time.”

Guidewire PolicyCenter is a flexible underwriting and policy administration system that enables general (Property/Casualty) insurers to grow business profitably by improving efficiency, while responding with agility to market opportunities and enhancing relationships with agents and customers. Designed to support both commercial and personal lines, PolicyCenter helps insurers streamline front and back office processes, from new business submission and quoting through policy renewals. PolicyCenter is available as a standalone system or as part of Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, and can be integrated to an insurer’s legacy systems or third party applications.

Guidewire BillingCenter is a comprehensive billing and receivables management system built on the core design principles of automation, control and flexibility. BillingCenter allows you to deliver insurance your way by making it easier to automate the billing lifecycle; design flexible billing, payment and delinquency plans; manage agent commissions; and enable rapid integration with external payment systems. BillingCenter is available as a standalone system or as part of Guidewire InsuranceSuite, and can be integrated to a general (Property/Casualty) insurer’s legacy systems or third party applications.